Three Days In Karzahni
by Halethwyn
Summary: The Toa Nuva have vanished. The Turaga are being tight lipped again. A shadow of fear hangs over the matoran of Mata-Nui. Jaller and his closest friends embark on a journey to find their heroes and bring them back. Little do they know their journey will take them through the very worst place in the universe... and the hardest tests of their lives.
1. Author's Note

It is helpful, but not necessary to have read the official books about the Toa Inika before reading this story. It is completely necessary to have a basic knowledge of the Mask of Light saga, and to know that I differ from the official method of how matoran are born. Instead of having them live forever and be created by a machine in Metru-Nui, I place their average lifespans around 300 years and have them born into families like humans, maintaining their mixed biological/machinery makeup. This necessitates having males and females in all elements, and some canon characters will have non-canon spouses and/or children. There will be semi-graphic depictions of injuries, blood, death, ghosts, and a brief adult reference without anything explicit. This is a PG-13 story.

It goes without saying, but for some reason everyone has to say it anyway: I do not own LEGO, BIONICLE, or any of their official characters or plotlines.


	2. Chapter 1 - The World Turned Upside Down

Jaller pressed his fist against the invisible barrier that separated him from his best friend. "It's not your fault, Takua. If it was built to keep you out, I don't think you're going to be able to weasel your way through."

Tears stood in the Toa of Light's eyes. "Takanuva," he corrected with a shaky laugh. "Get it right, moron."

Jaller swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. He turned to the five other matoran. "Come on, guys; we need to keep moving."

One by one, Hewkii, Kongu, Nuparu and Matoro said their quiet goodbyes to Takanuva. The Toa of Light blinked furiously to keep from crying. "You've gotta make sure Jaller comes back in one piece, okay?" he joked to Hewkii. "It'd be kind of an anticlimax if he died again." His friends tried to smile. Last of all, Takanuva turned to Hahli. "Be careful, Squirt," he said softly, using his pet nickname for her.

The Ga-matoran stifled her tears and pressed herself against the invisible wall, trying as hard as she could to go back, to get out, to give her best friend one last hug. Takanuva stooped and looked her in the eyes. "Hey, stop it. Come on; we Chroniclers have to be brave. You're setting a bad example for the guys!" She tried to smile, but only managed a hiccup of grief.

Jaller stepped forward and put a protective hand on Hahli's shoulder. "Come on. There's nothing we can do." He looked back up at his best friend's golden mask. "Takua, when you get back to Mata-Nui-"

"If you're worried about being forgotten," the Toa interrupted, "don't even think I'll let that happen."

"I know. I was going to say, don't let them follow us," Jaller finished, his voice carefully controlled. "No sense in losing anyone else. Goodbye, Takua."

"Bye, Jaller."

The Ta-matoran turned and led his team up and over the ridge. The Toa watched them until they were out of sight. "Mata Nui be with you," he muttered, kicking at the accursed barrier.

* * *

"Okay, this makes no logicsense," Kongu declared, studying a piece of pounded harake paper several hours later. "I've been making a mapguide of where we've groundwalked, and we're footgoing in spincircles!"

Hewkii frowned. "We've been going in a straight line."

Kongu shrugged. "Don't thoughtknow what to speaktell you, sand crawler; my guidemap says we've passedgone this wateryuck before." He gestured at a sluggish stream of brown water that came from some spring higher up in the rocky hills. "Three times, we've groundwalked pastgone. Don't know how, don't know why, but that's what pasthappened."

"And I'm telling you, I've been navigating a huge desert since I could crawl. We are hiking up the side of a mountain; it's very easy to tell which way you're going. And we're going up." Hewkii crossed his arms stubbornly.

"Maybe you're both right," Nuparu chimed in thoughtfully. "There could be more than one stream around here."

"The sametwin wateryuck?" Kongu countered.

Nuparu hesitated, realizing he had just inserted himself into an argument. "Well, we don't exactly know that it's the same one."

Kongu snapped his fingers. "I'll truthprove." He stuck his unadorned wooden walking stick into the ground next to the stream, burying the end enough to make it stand upright. "Now, the next runpass we make, we sharpwatch for the branchstick."

Hewkii rolled his eyes. "You're letting the sun get to you, air head."

"It can't hurt to let him try, right?" Matoro offered, taking Kongu's side. "Let's just keep walking. Jaller and Hahli are already ahead."

As if in answer, Jaller turned and yelled back at them. "Keep up, you guys!"

Kongu snickered. "'Keep groundwalking, let's go, fastmove'. The absolute last word that comes to thoughtmind is 'bossy'."

Nuparu jumped to his friend's defense. "Jaller's not bossy! He's just in charge."

"Kongu just hates not being in charge," Hewkii added laughingly.

The Miru-clad Le-matoran laughed good-naturedly. "What? Like I'm banforbidden to have an mindopinion?"

"Come on!" Jaller called again. His voice echoed against the bare cliffs and hills. "We found something!"

The other four matoran ran to catch up with their friends who stood almost at the top of a spur jutting out from the mountainside. After a minute or two of struggling over the rough terrain, they found Jaller was standing knee-deep in a stream - which did look a good deal like the one they had just left - examining a mangled lump of rotten wood at the edge of the water.

"Someone else came this way, a long time ago," Jaller explained, pointing to the fossilized remains. "The wood isn't part of a plant; it was cut and smoothed."

Hahli shook her head. "That doesn't mean anyone's here now, Jaller. Who would want to stick around this place?"

"Uh, I thought-think we do, apparently," Kongu gulped. "I stuckplanted that, just down the steephill. At the sametwin stream that we keep runpassing."

"Oh... Mata Nui, he's right," Nuparu gasped, looking frantically back down the hill for the other stream.

Hewkii crossed his arms. "Whoa, whoa. Just because someone else used a marker here a long time ago doesn't mean-"

"But it's in exactly the same position as Kongu's stick, relative to the water and that bunch of pebbles," the Onu-matoran interrupted. "The odds of exact placement replication like that being performed by two different people who never interacted are astronomically low; practically zero."

"Why can't anyone on this trip speak plain matoran?" Hewkii rolled his eyes. "So what you're saying is that Kongu plants his staff in the ground about a minute ago, we walk away from it and a couple yards away, we not only find the stick, but find it older? Does anyone else think this theory is just a little crazy?"

"Like this whole journeytrip hasn't been crazymad?" Kongu shrugged. "Welcome to adventurescrambles, where crosswired is the new normalfine."

Jaller listened to the exchange quietly, gazing around at the seemingly endless range of barren mountains. _What was that rhyme Matoro read? 'A world of shadow, famine and plague'; something like that, anyway. But that doesn't explain the stick, or the way we never get any closer to the top._ He cleared his throat as he stepped out of the brook. "There's something else; this water is dry."

"Come again?" Hahli asked, bending down to touch the stream. The liquid rippled over her fingers. "That's... It feels like sand. How can...?"

The Po-matoran threw up his hands. "Okay, what is going on? Moving up the mountain takes us in circles, a stick ages years a few minutes, and the water isn't water?"

"Of course, there is a chance that someone else put a second stick there," Nuparu said weakly. "Someone who didn't leave."

The others turned to look where he pointed. A lone matoran stood at the top of the ridge, outlined by the cold sunlight. The figure waved at them, then ran over the ridge out of site.

"Who was that?" Hewkii wondered, grabbing a disk from his pack. "And what are they doing here?"

"Exploring," Matoro panted, coming up from behind the group. "I think I've figured out how this place works; at least a little of it."

Hewkii gestured at the hill top. "That... That was you?"

He nodded. "I was at the top."

"But you were herestanding, and then you were mountaintop, and then groundwalked away from us," Kongu sputtered. "What in Mata Nui's name...?"

"It was sort of Hewkii's idea, actually," he smiled. "He pointed out that everything we expect turns out to be just the opposite. So I tried walking downhill... And suddenly, I was at the top. I wanted to get back to you, so I ran away from you."

Nuparu blinked, trying to take in the paradox. "How does that work, exactly?"

"I don't know. But the point is, it does. We can at least get over the mountain," Matoro offered.

On any other day, Jaller would have declared Matoro insane. Today, running backwards to go forwards seemed far less strange than a tunnel that ate light and an invisible wall built just to keep his best friend out. "Okay," he told Matoro, "lead the way."

The Ko-matoran turned to face away from the mountain's crest and started running; the others followed close behind. The ground seemed to twist itself under their feet, as if it was alive. In a few short seconds, they found themselves at the top, looking down on a vast grey plain of dust. It was perfectly flat and absolutely still - nothing in it moved or grew. There was not a breath of wind, not a noise from a matoran or a rahi or even an insect. The sky overhead was cloudless, but looked grey, as if the sun did not have the strength to give the sky color. It was like something in a dead world.

"Looks like fun," Hewkii commented drily.


	3. Chapter 2 - Crosswired Bedtime Stories

_This land is impossible,_ Jaller decided. _I'm dreaming or in an illusion._ He leaned back a little harder, trying to yank Kongu away from the slate-grey chunk of rock the Le-matoran insisted was his favorite gukko bird, Ka. _Okay, if you wanna play it that way, bring it. I'm always the last sane person in the room, anyway._ "Let go, air head!"

"But she's painhurt!" Kongu protested, struggling against the Ta-matoran's iron grip.

"That is not," Hewkii grunted, pulling on his friend's foot, "a real bird, you idiot!"

Nuparu bit his tongue thoughtfully. "Maybe if we do the opposite, he'll be okay. Like with the mountain."

"Worth a shot," the Po-matoran admitted. "Hey, Kongu; hang on to Ka!"

"That's what I'm doing!" The Le-matoran's grip tightened. "Stop hardholding!"

"Okay, so much for that idea," Hewkii muttered. "Anyone else?"

"It's like an illusion, right? Maybe a shock would bring him out," Hahli suggested. "I have dried ugli fish in my pack - we could put some in his mouth."

Nuparu shuddered. "That stuff would shock anyone. No offense."

"None taken," she replied, digging the putrid bundle out of her pack. Ga-matoran believed the smelly fish flesh to be a cure for many kinds of disease and never traveled without it. The other villages considered it a sea-grown poison and avoided it completely. Hahli tore a small piece off the dried fillet. "Ready?" she asked Jaller and Hewkii. They nodded and Hewkii shifted his grip to hold Kongu's mouth open. Quickly, Hahli shoved the fish inside and held his nose. Kongu's eyes widened and he tried to spit it out, but Hewkii clapped a hand over his mouth and forced him to swallow. Slowly, the green madness filtered out of the Le-matoran's eyes and his grip on the stone relaxed. Jaller cautiously loosened his grip on Kongu's arms, but his friend made no attempt to fight back. Hewkii slid his hand off Kongu's mask and let him breathe.

"Yuck," Kongu spat, wiping his tongue on the back of his hand. "What was that? On second thinkthought, don't secret-tell. I'm good." He examined the new scratches on his armor and added, "If what I thinkbelieve happened happened, let us never sayspeak of this again."

"Agreed." Hewkii shouldered his pack again, glad that episode was over. They had been traversing the plain beyond the mountains for several hours and it ought to have been night by now. But the sun stayed stubbornly at the midday peak of it's arc, and none of them felt very comfortable stopping out in the open. The opposite movement had stopped working as soon as they stepped off the mountain and none of them had quite figured out the rules to this new place. Each of them had seen illusions of someone they knew or cared about either dead or hurt, although none had reacted as violently as Kongu. And worst of all, the air was getting hard to breathe, as if they were on a very high mountain. Matoro and Nuparu were alright, since they were accustomed to functioning in low oxygen environments, but everyone else was feeling the lack of air.

"Good. Now, if that's over, let's keep moving," Jaller said, wiping the dust off his mask.

"Has anyone considered the possibility that this place doesn't lead anywhere?" Nuparu piped up. "I mean, we don't seem to be getting anywhere and this place is totally nuts. We could go back; find another way."

"For one thing, that barrier would still be shut," Hewkii replied. "For another, the Toa may not have enough time for us to find an alternate route."

Kongu, still wiping his tongue on his arm, spoke in a muffled voice. "Okay, but the childkid has a point. We don't headknow if this strangeplace has a waypath out."

Jaller was about to give a sharp retort when he noticed guilty looks on both Hahli's and Matoro's masks. They had been talking quietly together the last hour or so, and had hung back from the group. He had no reason to object to that - not that he would say in public, anyway - but now he strongly suspected they knew something they weren't sharing. "You two have something you wanna say?"

Hahli shifted her weight uneasily. "Well..."

Matoro shook his head. "It's all speculation, really. Just an educated hunch, if you will."

"Well, the uneducated would be very interested to hear the hunch," Jaller replied, with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Hahli glanced up at his face, looking hurt. He wished he could change the way it sounded, but he _was_ annoyed with them, and the clock was ticking.

"Okay, but... just keep it in mind that we're basing a lot of this off-"

"Spit it out, why don't you," Hewkii cut Matoro off, not unkindly.

"Matoro thinks he may know where we are." Hahli bent one knee to draw some figures in the dust. "See, this sign was on a few of the pillars back there, and this one was carved into the cliff face. This one was over the door Takua couldn't get through, and this one we saw just a couple minutes ago." The symbols she traced were jagged and not anything like the rounded matoran alphabet. "It's Kohd, the first language in recorded history. Each figure is a word, and the words put together form an idea, almost like a sentence."

"Can you speakread it?" Kongu asked.

"A little," Matoro replied, adding a few lines to one of the figures with his finger. "It's complicated, and doesn't follow the same rules as ours. Nuju taught me on and off for years and Nokama's taught Hahli a bit, so between the two of us, we get the gist of it. This one is death, that one's night or darkness, eternal, and this one's contained."

"Or not," Hahli added. "We're mostly guessing on that one."

"What do they mean all together?" Nuparu asked. His brain wasn't tracking the history lesson very well; he preferred to deal with tangible objects that had nuts and bolts and electricity.

"Karzahni," the Ko-matoran answered bluntly. "I think so, anyway."

"Whoa, whoa. You're telling me someone actually bothered to write in a really old language that no one uses just to spell the name of a monster story that keeps kids in bed at night?" Hewkii crossed his arms in disbelief.

"Actually, I'm thinking the writing's there because that's where we are." Matoro gazed off to his left, using the telescoping lens on his mask to scan the distant cliffs. "Karzahni's a real place, you know. Some of the historical manuscripts in Metru-Nui talk about it as a island in the Southern Sea."

Jaller rubbed his chin ruefully. "You expect me to believe we're in the place that evil beings go when they die?"

"Based on the attitude you've exhibited since this trip started, I don't expect much realism from you," Matoro retorted coldly, "but only an idiot denies the evidence of his eyes."

"Attitude? As in the Kopaka imitation you're doing now?" Jaller replied tersely.

"Guys?" Kongu interjected. Everyone ignored him.

"Ever since this started, you've been acting like the whole world is on your shoulders and you're the only one who's doing anything right," Matoro said, standing up and resting one hand on his ice pick.

"Better that than being a coward who was practically forced to be here," the Ta-koronan spat.

Hewkii rolled his eyes. "We need to keep moving. You can fight on the way if you want to, girls."

Nuparu dug for something in his pack. "Look, it's obvious that you people wouldn't understand the concept of time running out if you got hit with a sundial, so I'll use small words."

"Guys?" Kongu said a little louder.

"What, Kongu?" Hahli asked quietly, throwing an unhappy look at the arguing group.

He looked relieved that someone was listening. "I think I sightsaw something runmove, over that way."

Hahli strained her eyes against the sun, but couldn't make out anything but the level plain stretching off to the mountains. "Are you sure it wasn't another illusion?"

"No," he admitted, "but it didn't seemlook like anyone I heartknow. There it is!"

This time, she clearly saw movement among the dust dunes, about two hundred and odd bio away. "What is that?" she muttered. The shadow was too low and long to be a matoran - some kind of rahi perhaps?

Behind them, the noise of the argument got louder and Jaller had actually drawn the double-bladed sword from the sheath on his back. Matoro was glaring daggers, Hewkii was in between the two, looking grim, and Nuparu was trying to use some kind of mechanized stick to get their attention. Kongu glanced over his shoulder at his friends and shook his head in disbelief. _When did they get so Tahumad?_ he thought to himself. _We were all happyfine friends a minute ago. Wait, Tahumad - that's it!_

"I know why they're loudfighting!" He grabbed Hahli's arm excitedly, distracting her from trying to track the shadow's movements. "It's just like what the white evilRahkshi did to the Toaheros!"

She snapped to attention. "Where? Where's it coming from?"

"Don't know. But we can headthink it out." He glanced back in the direction of the shadow, only to find it was much closer and faster than he had thought. "Uh, first problemsolve the thing over there."

Hahli blinked as the creature came near enough for her to recognize the shape. She had seen that squat, powerful frame only once before - in Makuta's caves under the Mangai volcano. But once was more than enough. "Manas!"

Her yell didn't even phase the fighting matoran. Hewki was now blocking martial punches from Matoro, while Nuparu wrestled with Jaller over the sword. Kongu was right; something was keeping the normally cooperative matoran fighting and unstable.

"What do we do?" Hahli demanded, glancing back and forth between the angry group and the approaching rahi.

"I'll try to eyedistract it," he replied, not allowing himself to picture how that would surely end. "Get them quickmoving and... Don't herecome after." Hahli shook her head vehemently, evidently not satisfied. "I'm sprintspeed, okay?" he pointed out. "I'll keep it worriedbusy longer. Just go!" He tossed his pack on the ground, trying to lighten his load before sprinting forward and a little to the right of the crab.

Frustrated and feeling like a traitor, the Ga-matoran turned and leapt into the fray, sharply knocking several heads with the shaft of her spear. "Would you all just stop fighting and help?!"

It didn't take long for their unnatural anger to be channeled at this new enemy. "Quit it!" Hewkii growled, swinging a large fist at Hahli's head. The blue matoran dodged it, ducked under Nuparu's electrified prong-tool-thing and began running. A glance over her shoulder confirmed that the other four were following her. _Mata Nui, I don't know if you can hear me, but please keep Kongu safe._ Her legs pounded at the dusty ground as she led her enraged friends faster and faster, away from the manas crab.


	4. Chapter 3 - Night (and Day) Terrors

Terror was a good thing today. Terror was the only influence keeping Kongu alive. Just behind him, the sharp claws of the manas crab clacked eagerly, as if anticipating ripping him limb from limb. He had been running for about five minutes and was already losing ground. Sheer exhaustion battled with survival and exhaustion was winning. He tried hard not think about what would happen when his legs finally gave out.

Gasping for more of the thin air, keeping mere lio away from the hungry and savage rahi, his brain registered a new flash of movement. A second crab was trotting towards him from the left. That crab was a chance, the merest slightest hope, that he might not die today. He planted his right foot and spun to face the newcomer, running almost headlong at it. He was gambling on a half-remembered anecdote from Toa Lewa - when not controlled by Makuta, the crabs were very territorial.

The newcomer hissed angrily at the Manas hunting in its territory. The one chasing Kongu was too intent to notice. With a last effort, Kongu skidded to a stop less than three bio away from the second Manas and ducked to the side. The one chasing him chittered a warning at the newcomer, who responded with a burst of hissing and clacking. Kongu hoped that was Manas for "leave the little green guy alone!", and threw himself out of sight behind a rock. His chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath. On the other side of the rock, the angry roars of battling crabs could be heard. _Got to fearfly, before they choosetake one who gets to hungereat,_ he thought. His aching muscles protested sharply, his heart pounded in his ears, and a painful slice on his back he had not noticed in the moment oozed blood onto his armor, but he managed to crawl away.

* * *

"Wait, wait!" Nuparu suddenly yelled, skidding to a stop. The group had been chasing Hahli aimlessly for a minute or two, and Kongu was out of sight. At his yell, the three other males also stopped running. Hahli turned, ready for anything from nursery rhymes to swear words from the young Onu-matoran.

"We... I... Why are we here?" he asked.

"To save the Toa, obviously," Hewkii replied, but not with his previous sharpness.

Nuparu shook his head. "No, I mean, why are we running? And where's Kongu?"

"Oh, thank you, Great Spirit," Hahli muttered, dropping to one knee to catch her breath. Something about the air in this place made running for a minute seem harder than playing a three-hour game of kohlii.

Jaller shook his head, like someone waking from a nightmare. "Another illusion?"

"More like the anger Rahkshi," the Ga-matoran replied. "It's not important; we have to go back."

"I think I remember explaining that we can't go back," Hewkii growled, mad at the universe in general. "Unless that was also an illusion."

Hahli shook her head. "I mean we have to go back for Kongu. He was trying to distract a Manas crab so we could get away." Wearily, urgently, she picked herself up and began trotting back in the direction they came from. The others followed as quickly as they could, with Matoro running alongside her.

"You said Manas?" he asked between strides. "They're supposed to be the bringers of death, servants of Karzahni and Makuta."

"So you were right?" she asked grimly.

He nodded, too tired to waste any more breath on words.

"Then," she panted, "at least we're on the right track."

"Right track?!" Hewkii retorted. "The 'right track' involves going through Karzahni?"

"You're surprised the universe has a dark sense of humor?" Jaller muttered under his breath.

"Think about... the message Nixie... gave us," Hahli gasped out.

Nuparu made the mistake of thoughtfully biting his tongue while running. "Ow! She said, 'the path to the Toa lies between the pillars of death and despair; it ends in the land of the forgotten.'"

Hewkii grimaced. "This place would sure qualify."

"Where's Kongu?" Jaller asked impatiently, breaking through the semantics. It mattered very little where they were if they didn't all get out.

"I guess... we left him about here," Hahli glanced around, slowing her pace. "That's his pack. But he ran off that way, towards the rocks."

"Kongu!" Hewkii yelled, his hands forming a sort of trumpet around his mouth. "Where are you?"

"Keep it down!" Jaller ordered his friend. "You wanna bring more of those things out?"

Hewkii shrugged, slinging Kongu's abandoned pack over his shoulder. "Toa Pohatu told me Manas crabs are deaf. They hunt by smell and vibrations in the ground."

 _I should have remembered that,_ Jaller thought, annoyed. "Whatever. Just... find Kongu."

Time had little meaning in the dead valley, but it felt like two or three hours before they found him, hidden behind a boulder, rubbing his sore legs. Hahli gave a little cry of joy and hugged him. "You're okay!"

"Ah, easygentle!" he protested, grinning.

"Not dead, huh?" Hewkii smiled, offering the Le-matoran a hand up. "Shoot; I thought we finally got rid of you."

Kongu chuckled at the joke. "Not that quickeasy."

"You're bleeding!" Hahli exclaimed, showing her own hands spattered with red.

Kongu frowned sharply as he stood up. "Yeah. Took a hardhit on my back from a sharpclaw Manas. Just Lhii's luck I didn't get cutsnapped in half."

"I'll bandage it," Jaller offered, digging in his pack for the necessary medical supplies.

"Heart-thanks." Slowly, Kongu turned around and used his arms to lean on the rock, which despite the afternoon sun felt very cold.

With a practiced hand, the Captain of the Ta-koro Guard began first cleaning and then mending the wound on the Le-matoran's back. Fortunately, the gouge was not deep and the armor over the flesh could be repaired with a heat stone. As he worked, he asked, "See anything besides the Manas?"

"Ugh," Kongu grunted in pain. "Nope, barrensame everywhere."

"Isn't that what Karzahni is supposed to be?" Nuparu piped up. "A place where everyone and everything is dead?" He was the youngest of the group - not even twenty years old yet - and was barely more than a child by matoran standards. So he remembered the night stories better than any of the grown ups.

"Dead is not what I feel in this place," Matoro commented softly. "I feel... I sense someone watching me. Us."

Hewkii shuddered. "Yeah, magic and monsters isn't really my thing; how 'bout we keep moving and get out of here?"

Jaller shook his head as he finished gently tying the bandage. "Look, it's obvious that the sun isn't moving normally. We're all tired and it's probably supposed to be long past sundown. I think we need some rest."

Kongu nodded vigorously. "I voicevote for sleeprest."

"I'll take first watch," Matoro volunteered. He climbed up on top of the boulder and sat down, keeping an eye out for more crabs. Below, Kongu gingerly lowered himself to the ground and sighed in relief. Uneasily, the other four followed his example; laying down without taking their armor off and with their packs and weapons close to hand. In broad daylight, the little band of friends managed to find sleep.

* * *

 _Welcome, child._

Hahli jerked her eyes open. She was standing in a small circle of light on an otherwise pitch black floor. There was a faintly cold breeze ruffling her coppery hair. The source of the voice, if it was a voice and not her imagination, was invisible.

 _It has been some months. You have forgotten me?_

The Ga-matoran shook her head. "No. Never."

A bitter laugh echoed in the emptiness. A figure, somehow more black than the surrounding darkness, became silhouetted in front of Hahli. The shadow was tall and vaguely female, but nothing else about it was very definite. _No, of course not. No one ever forgets their nightmares._

Hahli clenched her fists. "Last time, you showed me a funeral. And you said you were sad, that it was my funeral. You lied; it was Jaller's."

 _Ah. The student of Gali has been taught well, but failed to listen. Did something in you not die that day? Did you still wish to be among the living after that? Death comes to you all, in the end, and you may not find it so horrible a specter as you fear._

"You lied to me," Hahli repeated coldly. "You could have warned me; I could have saved him if you'd warned me."

 _If you had, what then? Would he have walked away from his quest, out of fear?_

"No."

 _Then what would be the point?_

"I could have said goodbye. I could have..." Hahli trailed off, unwilling to say to her mysterious tormentor what she was still unable to say to Jaller.

 _You could have said, 'I love you'?_ The whisper had become a sad sort of laugh.

Hahli's mask went pale blue with anger. "I want you out of my head! I don't want the visions, or any of this. I want you out." She took a step towards the shadowy figure.

 _DO NOT LEAVE THE LIGHT._

Without warning, the voice became a strong current, like the clanging of a bell. Startled and a bit frightened, Hahli stepped back into the center of the pool of light. "Why?"

 _When we walk together here, the light is your consciousness, the darkness is mine. If you venture into the mists of my mind, you may be consumed by what you see._

She peered into the darkness, trying to make out the figure more clearly. "I honestly don't care who you are. I just want you out."

 _I am your guide, Hahli. And you need me, now more than ever._ The words, now soft and menacing again, had a sense of finality about them.

"Why?" She spit the word out as if it was poison. "Why in Mata Nui's name would I need you, when you never tell me what I need to know?"

The whisper was darker, almost angry. _The living should not walk the paths of the dead; if you wish to leave this place, there will be a trial of virtue._

"As in, the Three Virtues?" Hahli smiled. Her friends would excel at that kind of trial.

 _Not as you are imagining it. A test of the very fiber of your souls, your secret sins brought to light and thrust in your faces. No lies left undiscovered, no secrets untold. Do you truly wish to see what lies in their souls?_

Hahli tilted her head back proudly. "There's nothing to find. My friends don't have any 'secret sins'."

 _Is there nothing in your own heart you wish to hide?_

"No," she replied confidently.

 _Then the trial will begin. Walk south, towards the bogs, if you wish to survive._


	5. Chapter 4 - Into the Swamp

Hewkii jolted awake with the certainty he had just been hit. His chest still tingled where the imaginary blow had been. Shaking off dreams, he sat up and looked around. All the others were asleep, even Nuparu, who was supposed to be on watch. _Should've taken the watch myself. Too much for the kid._ He stood up and scanned for danger. The dusty plain was still empty, strangely so. The sun still burned at the mid-day position, giving a sort of dull glare to the grey ground. _This place gives me the creeps._

Behind him, a quiet noise alerted the Po-matoran to movement. He turned to find Hahli awake. "Hey. You okay? You look like you just saw Makuta."

"I might as well have." She shuddered and stood up. "Sorry; bad dreams."

He shrugged. "I think in this case, being awake isn't a huge relief."

"Maybe not," she admitted, smiling weakly. "Am I on watch now?"

Hewkii shook his head. "Nuparu fell asleep, actually. We should wake them up and get moving again." He could not pinpoint a reason for his desire to keep moving; it was a sixth sense, perhaps the remnant of a dream, that something was coming.

Hahli nodded agreement and turned to gently touch her friend's shoulder. "Kongu? Kongu, wake up."

The injured Le-matoran stirred and opened his eyes. "Oh, please let this be another dreamtale."

"Sorry, this one's real," Hewkii chuckled dryly. He shoved Matoro and Jaller roughly. "Up and at 'em, guys!"

Nuparu woke in mid-snore. "Wha-what? I didn't do it!"

Kongu laughed. "That's your firstplace thought-think?"

The Onu-matoran looked at his friends sleepily. "Translation?"

"He means, why is that the first thing you say? What _did_ you do?" Jaller explained, stretching his arms wearily. Somehow sleep had not made him feel rested at all. He thought he had been in some kind of nightmare, but he couldn't remember it anymore.

"Nothing!" Nuparu protested, getting to his feet. "Ugh. Sleeping in your armor is not fun."

Jaller shook his head. "Let's get moving again." As he said it, he realized he no longer had any way to gauge the direction from which they had come, and consequently, the way they were supposed to go. The search for Kongu had completely turned them around. From where they stood, they appeared to be in a round, flat valley surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs. The grey dust of the ground was broken only by a swampy area about half a kio to his left. Otherwise, the nearly uniform cliffs and peaks yielded no memorable landmarks. "Oh, Makuta-bones," he cursed, quickly adding, "Sorry, Hahli."

Matoro had come to the same conclusion. "We're lost. And with the sun at midday, we can't judge direction."

"We don't need the sun," Nuparu said proudly, rummaging through his oversized pack. "No Onu-matoran leaves home without a good compass." He pulled out a strange metal disc with several mathematical markings on the rim and a silver-colored needle spinning in the center. "We use them underground, to dig towards another village or an outlet." He held the compass steady, waiting for the silver needle to stop spinning. But the metal simply kept going around without slackening its pace at all. "Oh. Well, the laws of physics could be suspended, too. That would be _fine_."

Hewkii raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Didn't think you had a sarcastic gear in your body, kid."

Nuparu's mask wore a rare expression of anger. "Look, I'm fine with danger when it plays by-"

"I know where to go," Hahli cut him off. She sounded reluctant.

"You do?" Kongu repeated. "How?"

She stared at her feet. "I... I get dreams, sometimes. Visions. This time, it said we should go towards the bog."

Matoro pursed his lips in thought. "You're a seer? Why didn't you tell the Turaga?"

Hahli shuffled her feet and didn't look up, so Jaller answered for her. "Sometimes the visions are pretty dark. She saw the Rahkshi before Takua found the Avohkii. She doesn't like having them."

"That, and they're sometimes misleading," she added bitterly.

Kongu ruefully touched his back, fingering the bandage. "That might have been goodnice to headknow before we leftset off on this flytrip to crosswiredness."

She nodded. "I know, and I'm sorry. I just... I really don't want them at all. The dreams said if we want to get out, then we have to undergo a 'test of virtue', and to walk to the bogs."

Matoro put a hand on her shoulder. "Kopaka never asked for the visions either. You can't choose what gifts you have; only how you use them."

"You know that sounds unbelievably corny, right?" Hewkii joked.

A rare smile showed itself on the Ko-matoran's mask. "Maybe so, but it's true."

Nuparu shrugged, as if giving up all claims to the world being sane. "Okay, to the bogs. But this had better not be a trap."

"That would be just my luck," Hahli muttered under her breath.

* * *

The bogs had seemed very far away, but only a few minutes' walking brought them to the edge of the swamp. The stinking, festering pools were cold and the water was undrinkable. Hewkii held a hand over his nose as he looked for a way through, or a mystic carving, or some reason why they had been told to go here. _This officially bites,_ he thought.

"See anything?" Kongu asked, gently lowering himself into a sitting position and wincing as his wound smarted.

The Po-matoran shrugged. "Nothing I think is weird. I hardly even have to ask, but this is not a normal swamp, right?"

Kongu shook his head. "After the strangeodd quietnoise? No leafdawnings here in... notnever, to my hundredeye. Brushscrubs should have deadcrumbled; should be baldland."

"Help?" Nuparu asked his friends, unable to follow the long babble.

"Besides the fact that there aren't any animals here, the plants don't seem to have ever been alive. Even if they were, they should have decomposed," Matoro translated. "And," he added, "in my opinion, there's something strange about the water. Take a look, Hahli."

She bent down at the edge of the swamp and sniffed delicately. "Not acidic," she muttered. Not allowing herself time to doubt it, she plunged her left hand under the surface. "Yuck!" she yelped. It wasn't water at all. It was brown slime, sticky and dense, and would not let her withdraw. Worse, she could feel some kind of tingling in her arm as her hand went numb. "Don't touch it!"

Jaller's eyes went wide in shock, then narrowed. He rushed to her side and pulled on her arm, trying to tug it free. "What the Hau?!"

Hewkii also grabbed her free hand and pulled, but to no avail. "Ow; stop!" she cried. They loosened their grip, but didn't let go, as if afraid she might be sucked under. "It's doing something... measuring me," she muttered.

Matoro knelt at her side. "What did you say?"

Hahli took a deep breath, calming herself. "I think... I think it's measuring me. Not the swamp; I mean something else."

Matoro nodded. "The test. Is it measuring us, too?"

She shook her head. "I think you'd know if it was. It's in my mind, searching for something."

Jaller stared at the goo that had bound itself around her hand; it had begun to ripple and bubble like boiling water. "What's it doing?" he pointed.

Matoro studied the reaction through his lens, then smiled. "It's becoming clean. Hahli, this is the test of virtue - of purity. You have to surrender to it. All the way."

"No," Jaller shook his head emphatically. "We're not putting her in there to drown."

"He's right, Jaller," Hahli said quietly. "It's okay. Just let go."

Hewkii glanced at his friend. "Your call, man."

The Ta-matoran shut his eyes, ignoring the stupidity of what he was about to do. Then he quickly loosed his grip on her hand and jumped as far as he could into the swamp. Almost instantly, it sucked him down under the filth. He managed one last gulp of air before the blackness took him.


	6. Chapter 5 - The First Test

Warning: This is the mature chapter. Nothing explicit, but it does deal with adult relationships and strongly condemns intimacy outside of marriage.

* * *

Oddly enough, Jaller didn't feel like he couldn't breathe. He was too overpowered by the sense of being invaded, that his mind and secrets were being sorted through and searched for something. Scenes flashed before his mind's eye: arm wrestling with his childhood girlfriend, the same girl telling him that she wanted someone else now that they were adults, the first time he met Hahli, the moment on top of the Lava Falls where he had so badly wanted to kiss her, a chance look at a Le-matoran female who wore ripped clothes... What did all these have in common? What was the invading presence looking for?

Suddenly, the solid mass of the swamp cleared around him and he was floating in water. He kicked and tried to reach for the surface, but he had been holding his breath too long, and he could not remember which way was up. How deep is this swamp, anyway? He felt a hand on his wrist, insistently tugging him, dragging him. He followed the pressure and a moment later, he broke the surface, coughing and gasping for air. Hahli was treading water at his side, supporting him and keeping him level.

"Are you guys okay?" Hewkii shouted, standing right at the edge of the swamp. Jaller turned his head to look and saw that now a small path of clear water led right from the bank to him.

"Yeah, fine," he coughed. "I just don't get it. What's the point of the test?"

Matoro sat down on the edge of the bank, smiled and carefully slid his legs into the muck. The brown goo swallowed up his limbs hungrily. "It's a test of purity. There's a physical side to that, of course - the way the swamp becomes water - but to the Ga-matoran, purity is also an internal goal. Right, Hahli?"

She nodded and kicked to pull herself and Jaller back towards the others. As she did so, the lane of water widened around them. "Purity is about your thoughts and actions, too. Especially about, uh," she looked away from him and blushed dark blue, "relationships."

Matoro nodded, then slid the rest of the way into the swamp. Nuparu shrieked in horror, but Hahli shook her head. "It's okay! He's showing you something." A moment later, much more quickly than Jaller, the swamp turned to water in a circle around Matoro, and he bobbed to the surface. "See?" The Ko-matoran laughed. "It searched my mind for 'poison' - being unfaithful to Nejjai - and found nothing. So I'm pure and the swamp reacts."

Jaller was surprised his friend would be so open about what the test was searching for, but of course, the clear water proved he had nothing to hide. _Matoro's been married for thirty-some years now, so he must have had a lot more opportunities than me for "poison"; why did he get out faster?_

As if in answer to his thought, Hahli piped up. "And surrendering to the test makes it faster?"

Matoro nodded and turned carefully to float on his back. "When you've got Jaller stable, I could use a little help, too," he admitted. "I naturally float, but I can't really swim. Not much chance to practice in Ko-wahi."

She nodded and slipped one arm under his, careful to keep a grip on Jaller, too. Her strong kicks kept them all afloat as she turned her head to look at the three still on shore. "It's okay, you guys. Just don't try to fight it and it's over quickly."

Nuparu looked at Hewkii and Kongu for help. Kongu shrugged, got to his feet and limped to the edge. "Sightsee you timepass, heartfriends," he joked. He took a step forward over the water and sank promptly. The water around him congealed into slime for a moment, then cleared again as he shot to the surface, coughing and sputtering about the hated "wateryuck".

Encouraged, Nuparu crept to the brink. "Uh, Hahli, can you catch me? Onu-matoran don't really float."

Hahli laughed and released her grip on Matoro and Jaller. "Can you two manage?"

Jaller nodded. He could swim a little, now that he had air in his lungs, and Matoro would be fine if he didn't try to move. "Go ahead, Nuparu."

The twenty-seven-year-old took a deep breath, closed his eyes and jumped. A few moments later, he passed the test and Hahli dragged him to the surface. "Whoohoo!" Nuparu yelled, splashing the cool water on his mask. "The heat was killing me."

Hahli took a tentative sip of the water and found it as fresh and cool as any Ga-matoran could wish for. "We should refill our water skins."

"I'll do it," Hewkii offered. "Toss them to me."

Matoro splashed until he could face the shore and look at the Po-matoran. "Why aren't you... Oh, right. We need to figure out how to keep you and Nuparu afloat at the same time."

Nuparu bit his lip, thinking. "We could empty the water skins and tie them together so the air inside can keep me up. Then Hahli can help Hewkii."

"Good idea!" Jaller grinned. He carefully felt for his water skin with one hand, keeping his arms and feet moving. He slipped the skin out of it's side pocket from his backpack and tossed it to Nuparu. The Onu-matoran caught it and proceeded to empty it and blow it as full of air as he could manage before corking it tightly. One by one, each of the others repeated the process and Nuparu lashed the skins together with string from Hahli's seemingly endless pack of supplies. Carefully, he shifted his weight onto the floating bundle. He bobbed, sank a bit, then floated evenly at the surface.

"It works!" Hahli smiled. It was such a relief to be able to solve and defeat a problem, even if it was only keeping a heavy matoran afloat. This place was so unsolvable, so outside their control, that they needed this small victory. She turned to face Hewkii. "Okay, slide in and I'll catch you."

Hewkii shook his head. "I'm too heavy; I'd drag us both down."

Hahli rolled her eyes. "Come on. If Macku can keep you afloat, so can I."

Hewkii frowned sharply. "She can't, actually; she just likes to say that she could if she tried. I'm gonna stay here."

Jaller glanced at Matoro and saw the same suspicion he felt in his friend's eyes. He paddled close to the shore and tugged at Hahli's arm. "Leave him alone, okay?"

Her face showed complete incomprehension. "But he has to get in! We have to all face the tests if we want to get out!"

"Hahli," he replied in a low voice, "what happens if we can't pass the test?"

"All of us can pass. We all follow the Virtues."

 _She's really going to make me spell it out for her,_ he grimaced.

"I can't pass," Hewkii said shortly. "There; happy?"

Hahli glanced from Jaller to Hewkii and back. "I don't understand."

"Me neither," Nuparu muttered.

Kongu rolled his eyes. "For Mata Nui's sake, kids! He's not pureclean!"

Understanding dawned in their eyes. Hahli looked down, as if ashamed for him. Nuparu stared at the Po-matoran in disbelief. "You mean... You and Macku... You-"

"Spit it out, why don't you?" Hewkii snapped. "I'm not proud of it."

 _She said our secret sins would come out,_ Hahli thought, staring at the water in horror and disbelief. _She did warn me this time, and I didn't believe her._

"Hahli?"

Matoro's voice brought her out of her thoughts. "Yes?"

"What do the Ga-matoran do to cleanse impurity?"

Even in her shock, she smiled brightly at the Ko-matoran. Behind that quiet mask lay a brilliant mind, and she always admired how quickly he could parse a problem. "Well, the first part is confession." She glanced at Hewkii and added, "The person has to confess what they did, publicly. And ask forgiveness."

For a long moment, Hewkii looked as if he were about to walk away. But he closed his eyes and spoke softly. "I slept with Macku. And I'm... I've regretted it ever since. It wasn't right, not until I'm ready to marry her." He opened his eyes and looked right at Hahli. "I don't deserve forgiveness, but I want it."

"Then?" Matoro asked, looking at the Ga-matoran.

"We pour water over their hands," Hahli replied, climbing out of the water with some difficulty and scooping up some of the clear liquid in her hands. This she dripped over Hewkii from his hands to his elbows. Her normally friendly attitude had changed to one of solemnity. "The water takes the stain on your soul and washes it away. You have forgiveness, ours and Mata Nui's." She took a deep breath and looked into her one-time rival's eyes. "You regret what you have done, but it's not enough to regret. Swear to me, to us, that you will change your actions and thoughts so this is no longer a temptation." She was quoting as nearly as possible from a ritual Turaga Nokama performed in Ga-koro.

Hewkii nodded gravely. "I swear."

"Then you are clean in our eyes, and in Mata Nui's. Go and be changed." She gestured at the swamp.

The Po-matoran took a deep breath, closed his eyes and jumped. Hahli dove in headfirst after him. The water transformed into thick brown gel around them and held for a long moment.

Seconds ticked by in silence.

"What if..." Nuparu whispered, "Do you think they-"

The water cleared and sparkled as Hewkii's head broke the surface. Behind him, Hahli had her arms firmly wrapped around his chest and kicked hard to keep him up. The Po-matoran took a few panting breaths before saying, "Thanks, Hahli."

"You're welcome."

Kongu breathed a sigh of relief. "Now what?"

Abruptly, under their feet, the land rippled like a mirage and rearranged itself. What had been a swamp was now a clear, cool pond that stretched for about half a mile. The water was now only knee-high on the taller matoran, and the dead plants had been replaced by a few healthy trees on the bank. On the boughs of the trees hung unfamiliar fruits in bright colors and patterns.

"Evidently, virtue is rewarded," Matoro smiled, shaking his head and flinging water from his dark grey hair.

Nuparu began untying and refilling the water skins with water, since he no longer needed the flotation device. "I don't remember Karzahni rewarding anyone. He's supposed to punish them."

"Punish bad guys," Hewkii corrected, grinning as he shook water out of his ears. "And dead ones, at that."

"And, Mata Nui willing, we're not either of those," Jaller finished, clapping his Po-matoran friend on the back. "Come on; let's see if those trees are the next test."

But the trees proved to be quite ordinary, if they discounted the fact that none of them had ever seen the strange fruits before, and the way the leaves reflected the colorless sun in a silvery shimmer that was almost like moonlight. None of them felt brave enough - or foolish enough - to taste the bright orange and red-flecked fruit, but Kongu stowed one in his pack, on the small chance that if he ever got back to Turaga Matau, the elder might know what it was. Without a better idea, the group started walking along the edge of the clear pond in the same general direction they had been moving. The gloom, which had been weighing them down like an unseen burden, seemed to have lifted a little. Hewkii in particular was almost cheerful. Jaller fell into step beside his friend at the front of the group.

"I'm sorry you had to... I mean, I'm sorry it happened."

To his surprise, Hewkii laughed heartily. "I'm not. Do you know how long it's been gnawing at me? Do you know how much I hated myself for that one mistake?" He paused before adding, "You know, most of the time getting forgiven doesn't mean I feel forgiven, and I know ceremonies don't really change anything, but... Somehow, that was different. I could free climb Mount Ihu."

Jaller shook his head. "How about free climbing some of those cliffs and finding a way out of here, kohlii-head?" Though his tone was light, he was thinking hard about the implications of what his friend said. Did the Ga-matoran's ritual cleansing actually do something beyond symbolism? Why would someone as evil as Karzahni give them a chance for redemption?

Hewkii laughed again and the happy sound rang against the rocks eerily. "What, and leave you little Maha all on your own? Naw!"

"What's so happyfunny?" Kongu asked. "And does no otherbody sightsee the tunnelbound darkdoor?" He pointed to a boulder at the edge of the pond in front of them, about the height of a Toa, and nearly six bio wide. On closer examination, the rock did indeed have a doorway cut into it; the door was made of some kind of black metal they had never seen before. There were figures carved on both the door and on the boulder; some might have been images of matoran. But all the carvings were worn and faded, looking like the hollow faces of ghosts trapped forever in the rock.


	7. Chapter 6 - In Places Deep

Hewkii stepped up to the door fearlessly and pulled on the iron crossbar welded to it. The bolts were stiff and rusty, but after a moment, it swung outward with a sullen groan. Heedless, he walked inside and pulled out his lightstone. "Come on, you guys!"

One by one, the others filed in, lightstones gleaming palely in the darkness, until only the Le- and Ga-matoran were left.

"I heart-hate darktunnels," Kongu muttered. Hahli nodded agreement, and the two fished out their own lightstones, and stepped into the tunnel that ran steeply downhill. As they crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut behind them, the clang echoing down the length of the passage. Kongu immediately turned and pressed against the door, but it was now stuck fast.

"Predictable," Jaller muttered, drawing and triggering his double-bladed sword with his free hand. At his nod, Hewkii pulled his twin throwing knives from their sheaths and Kongu whipped his disk out of his pack. The three military leaders handed their lightstones to the civilians, but just as Nuparu, Hahli, and Matoro took the stones, they dimmed and died. Aside from the pulsing flashes of their heartlights, they stood in absolute blackness.

Nuparu sucked in his breath quickly. "That is not-"

"Possible; we know," Hewkii cut him off. There was still an odd note of cheerfulness in his voice. "Everybody grab someone's hand so we don't lose each other; just drop the lightstones, you guys."

The Onu-matoran stowed both stones he held in his pack for later examination. He muttered to himself as he did so, but with the dark sharpening their hearing, and the reverberating effect of the stone walls, everyone heard his complaint clearly. "Lightstones should dim gradually over time as their surface reacts with the air, and then you have to scrape off the surface. They wouldn't just go out unless you completely and instantly oxidized them."

Hewkii chuckled, slipping one of his knives back into the sheath at his belt. He patted Nuparu on the back and maintained a grip on the younger matoran's shoulder to keep him from getting lost. Nuparu, still muttering, grabbed Matoro's hand, and Matoro took Hahli's. Kongu and Jaller joined the line, but only put one hand on someone's arm - Kongu at the rear and Jaller next to Hahli - so that their weapon hands were free. Moving slowly, they walked downhill further into the tunnel. The air was stale, but no more so than the atmosphere of Onu-koro. Here, however, the air had a different tang and smell; like a thousand old books collecting dust. The floor was roughly cut, so that they constantly stumbled over loose rocks and small stalagmites.

"What test is this supposed to be?" Jaller wondered aloud.

"Maybe faith?" Matoro suggested. "A light in the dark; that sort of thing?"

Kongu shook his head, although no one could see it. "Faithvirtue test should notnever be in darktunnels. What's darkdweller heartvirtue?"

Nuparu was beginning to treat treespeak as a game, puzzling it out to a "logical" meaning before answering. "Industry. But I can't see what that would have to do with stumbling through tunnels that oxidize lightstones."

"They didn't oxidize," Matoro corrected quietly. "If they had, that much oxygen in the tunnel would kill us."

"Yes, of course," Nuparu replied shortly. He almost sounded snappy.

"Hey, don't let the insanity of the universe get to you, kid," Hewkii chuckled. "The floor's leveling out, guys."

A light, pale yellow and flickering, suddenly appeared in the blackness ahead of them. It revealed they had stepped into a round cave, about nine feet high and perhaps forty in diameter. Some of the stone walls had shelves carved into them, and these were half-full of dusty tomes and books with rotten covers. In between these shelves were rusty metal cabinets with panels covering them. The whole place was thick with dust and age. The light itself hung from the ceiling at the center of the room, and seemed to be a small, round glass surrounding a thin wire, which flickered between blazing like a small sun and the dim glow of an old lightstone.

"Test, anyone?" Hewkii joked, letting go of Nuparu's shoulder and moving to explore the strange room. "I can't see any other tunnels, but I bet if we pass the test - whatever it is - we'll find one."

The group released their chain grip and walked slowly around the room. Jaller opened one of the metal cabinets to reveal a jungle of wires inside, all rusty and tangled. There was still a faint hum of energy, so he did not touch them, but he did note that all of them joined into a braided rope of many copper wires at the top of the box, and the braid ran across the ceiling to the glowing glass. All of the metal cabinets had similar cords of wire running to join it above the glass, where they made one thick knot of rusty metal. "Nuparu? Any idea what these do?"

The boy came over to see what Jaller indicated, biting his lip in thought. "Well, at a guess, the wires run electricity to that light, but I can't see why you'd need so many wires when the lamp isn't that bright. And I've never seen a glass lamp that used electricity before." He began fishing in his pack for a tool. "It's also weird that the wires don't have a cover on them. They should be wrapped in dried yutakh sap so you can touch them without getting electrocuted."

"These books are in Kohd," Hahli reported from the other end of the room. "Something like a record of lineage, I think."

"These are in a language I've never seen before," Matoro replied, gently holding a volume made of tanned lizard-like skin.

"Anyone's principle relate to old books and bad wiring?" Hewkii quipped, examining the stone walls.

They chuckled, but the sensation of being trapped underground was quickly overriding any optimism they had gained from the last success. Kongu in particular was looking slightly claustrophobic, and Matoro kept sneezing from the dust. For several minutes, they studied their surroundings in near silence. Nuparu had begun carefully testing individual wires to see if they still conducted electricity, using an Onu-koro tool made of ussal crab shell and rubbery dried tree sap tipped with iron. As he eliminated wires, he cut them with a pair of shears.

Jaller glanced at his friend as he worked away, and half-smiled to himself. _Is his pack entirely tools?_ He turned to check on Hahli across the room; she was engrossed in one of the dusty old tomes, biting her cheek in concentration. He wished for perhaps the thousandth time that she could be back home, safe, and not have to face these horrors. And just as he had after every wish, he reminded himself that she had been called by the stars for this journey, and she could no more shirk her duty than he could. "Alright, let's try and narrow it down. The last test was pretty obvious, so why isn't this?"

Matoro nodded thoughtfully as he carefully skimmed another volume. "It's probably not courage, because what is there in here to be afraid of?"

"Airstarving," Kongu joked from the floor, sitting against the wall to ease the pain in his back.

Jaller rolled his eyes. "What about industry? Maybe we have to dig our way out?"

Nuparu shrugged, moving to a new tangled knot of wires. "With what picks? I've only got a hand spade, and you'd need a full-blown mining drill to get through all this rock before we suffocate."

"It might be self-control," Hewkii suggested, thinking aloud, "you know, breath control. Nah, that's stupid; how is that gonna prove any kind of virtue?"

"Well, what are the 'inner virtues'?" Nuparu asked. "I mean, the purity test was really about purity of thought, not dirt. So maybe the tests are aimed more at what we're thinking than the outward appearance. Industry is basically that you discipline yourself to always look for the next task, and never rest on past achievements."

Jaller began scraping with the handle of his dagger at the fault lines Hewkii indicated. "Courage is obvious. What about creation, Hewkii?"

The Po-matoran was concentrating intently on the echoes his tapping made in the wall, and did not respond for a minute or two. "Huh? Oh, well, the idea is that you build other people up, instead of tearing them down. Also that you avoid general mayhem and destructive-ness."

"So not creation, unless we're supposed to sit in a circle and give each other compliments," Nuparu mused. He closed the first cabinet, having eliminated all the wires except two, and moved on to the next. "Maybe we have to touch the live wires, like we had to touch the water. That could be courage."

Jaller rolled his eyes. "Courage is _not_ about doing stupid things; it's facing what you have to bravely." He glanced over at Hahli again and noted she was now fully absorbed in a book. "Hey, Hahli!"

"Huh?"

He gestured at the group. "We're trying to escape."

"Oh. Yeah, sorry." She set down the book and began another, trying to skim quickly.

Kongu leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. "How longtime have we got before we runlose the freeair?"

"All six of us in here, assuming no major cracks or seepage holes... half an hour, if we're not doing anything strenuous," Nuparu calculated.

The Le-matoran groaned softly as his bandage caught on a rock outcropping and pressed into his wound, but he forced a smile and shifted his position. "I'll worktry to lifebreathe less."

"Perhaps the fact that the test isn't obvious is a clue," Matoro mused. "Does anyone have a hidden meaning in their principle; something you have to look hard for?"

"Look hard fo- that's it! It is industry!" Nuparu exclaimed, turning away from his task to explain. "The test is that we have to look hard for the test!"

Jaller shook his head. "Nice try, but I don't think that counts. We've been looking."

"That's what I mean. Industry means never slowing down, never being la-" he stopped and pointed in shock at Kongu, who almost looked asleep against the wall. "Feet. _Feet!_ "

Confused, Jaller followed his friend's gaze, as did everyone else. Kongu opened his eyes, looked down at his feet, and screamed in shock. From his knees down, he had transformed into solid stone.


End file.
